Cop accused in Tulsi Prajapati encounter case seeks anticipatory bail

Ahmedabad: Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) RK Patel, whom the CBI has named as one of the 20 accused in its charge sheet in Tulsi Prajapati fake encouter case, today moved Gujarat High Court seeking anticipatory bail. Justice Sonia Gokani adjourned the hearing till tomorrow after the defendent’s lawyer sought an adjournment. [caption id=“attachment_451725” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Prajapati was allegedly killed in an orchestrated extra judicial killing. Screen grab from CNN IBN[/caption]On 4 September, 2012, the CBI had filed a charge sheet in the Magisterial court of Danta, Banaskantha naming former Minister of State for Home and close aide of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah among 20 accused in the case. Former state police chief PC Pande, IPS officers OP Mathur, DG Vanzara and Geetha Johri and RK Patel were also named in the charge sheet submitted in the court of judicial magistrate DR Joshi. “I have enough reasons to believe that I will be arrested. I have not been served with either FIR or a charge sheet implicating me and my reasons to believe that I will be arrested are only based on the front-page news in one of the respectable daily newspapers,” Patel said in his petition. Prajapati, an eye-witness in the encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, was allegedly killed in a fake encounter by Gujarat police at Chhapri, in Banaskantha district on 28 December, 2006. Patel, who is presently a DySP, Sarkhej Division, Ahmedabad (Rural), was the investigating officer in the Prajapati encounter case from September 29, 2007 to April 2011, when it was being probed by the CID Crime, Gujarat. PTI